Sister of the Sun
by singwing
Summary: Apollo came to DEAVA from the ruins of Ark City-but he didn't come alone. This is the story of his sister, Syleena-reincarnation of the Void Wing, Sirene, and her love, Barron-reincarnation of Star Wing. OC/Barron, Apollo/Silvia, Sirius/Reika, etc.
1. Chapter 1: A Weapon and a Warrior

"You," Sirene looked up, startled, from tracing the beautiful weapon. A boy with brown hair and silver eyes was watching her. "No, don't go." He called as she spun to take flight, unfurling her black wings. "You're with the other one, right? The one my sister likes." He elaborated at her puzzled glance.

"You know?" The Shadow Angel girl asked, tense.

"Of course I know." He said, letting out a small chuckle. "Seliene and I are twins. I'm Stellos." He extended a hand, which she after a moment's hesitation shook. "Younger than the famous woman warrior by half a minute, and she never lets me forget it." It was Sirene's turn to laugh. This wingless one amused her.

"I'm Sirene, younger sister of the great Apollonius by about half a century." Stellos laughed disbelievingly, thinking she was exaggerating, then looked at her weirdly. "Seriously? I had no idea Shadow Angels lived that long."

"We are immortal." She said simply. "Unless we choose to die, we shall live until the Tree of Life itself, which binds this world together, withers away."

"Wow." He said. "Awfully long time." They sat there, in companionable silence. "Y'know, something I've always wondered about…" the boy began. "Why exactly _does _your brother wear a skirt?" she blinked at him, and for half a second, there was silence.

Their raucous laughter shook the forest gently.

"A skirt…" Sirene couldn't help herself, gasping and clutching her sides. "Priceless…just priceless…" their laughter petered out gradually, and they sighed, the occasional giggle escaping. "Neh, technically, the 'skirt' is kindasorta supposed to show what a good warrior he is. He's so skilled that he doesn't need armor, or indeed cloth, to stop the weapon of an enemy. Weird, I know."

"So, I noticed you were admiring my Artemis earlier."

"Your who?" she asked him, confused.

"My Artemis." He walked over to the glass case and pulled out the beautiful bladed staff. "My sister should have inherited her, but she is more at ease with a conventional short sword, and either way Artemis has always been handed down to the firstborn son. Y'see, my family, my father in particular, has a theory that I was too lazy to leave the womb and be born first, and that laziness has carried over into my life and how I live it. It's true, though, I seem to be a lot more laid-back than anybody in my family. I just don't get why everyone is in such a hurry."

He balanced the bladed staff-Artemis-expertly on one finger before flipping and whipping it around in an intricate sequence. Sirene found herself spellbound by the motion, slowly gaining speed and complication, the young man dancing with the deadly weapon before finishing in a stamp and bringing the staff to rest at his side.

"One of the few things I've ever been truly committed to doing is mastering Artemis. In a way, though, since she almost has a soul of her own, no one can ever truly master her. I saw my father, her former master, dance with her once while I was spying on the practice courts with my sister. Seli was watching the swordsmen, and I let my attention wander, and I just found myself caught up in the motions.

"I made myself a crude practice staff in the woods and practiced every day, gaining the feel of the rod in my hands and building up calluses in all the right spots on them, until one day an armsman on patrol saw me working and brought it to my father's attention. I'm the first ever first born male of my family to not be the firstborn, y'know? I'm the first boy, but I'm not the first child. My father had every intention of taking Artemis with him into the grave, finally breaking with tradition, but when the armsman told him of my dedication, he decided to let me learn. And learn I did."

"We have a similar weapon. Not exactly the same, but close. My brother, much like your sister, favored swordsmanship, and while I learned it too, I in addition learned to wield the _nagamaki_, and in particular my mother's family's _nagamaki_, Inritus. It is really very much like your Artemis, but the blade is the same length as the shaft, and it is wielded in a slightly different fashion." She paused, before almost shyly continuing. "Perhaps I shall bring it along next time and we can compare."

"There's going to be a next time?" he asked, honestly taken aback.

"Perhaps." Sirene equivocated, cursing herself for the slipup. In the silence that followed, she cocked an ear, and her silver eyes flashed black for an instant as she used her Shadow Angel powers, and she said. "My brother has finished talking to your sister. Soon, he will come looking for me. You should probably go now." At his look, she elaborated. "Although I do not overly mind my brother's courtship of your sister, he does not have the same tolerant attitude towards those he sees as my possible suitors. You would not want to get on my brother's bad side." He nodded, replacing Artemis in her glass display case before entering the house, just as Apollonius walked into the courtyard.

"Sister." He acknowledged her, in the Shadow Angel's language.

"Brother." Her tone was even, nowhere close to betraying her emotions. She'd just had civil discourse with a wingless one! She should be outraged! Disgusted!

As the two of them took flight, he spreading those classic feathery wings, and she whipping out her four pairs of midnight-black wings, a tiny voice in the back of her head traitorously whispered. _He didn't seem that bad…_


	2. Chapter 2: A Baby and a Ball

Sirene looked from the shadows at the human in the clearing. She looked down at the little babe in her arms, gathering her courage before stepping out into the light.

"Sirene!" She watched her friend's face light up as he stood and walked over to her. In his typical light armor, the sun danced off of him with the cold glint of metal. He looked…glorious. His pace slowed as he came nearer. "What's that you're…holding…?" he trailed off as she pulled away a flap of embroidered cloth to reveal the face of an infant.

"His name is Futaba. He was born just a few weeks ago. He is…I believe…my second cousin, you would call it. My mother's sister's child birthed him, before she died. Of weakness, but also of an injured heart. Her match was slain in battle. I am…you could say, his godmother. I protect and defend him, but as I am unable to nurse him, another two care for him. Nefertiri and Atenkhaton. They are away on other business for the day, so it falls to me to watch him. I thought I should introduce the two of you. Futaba," she looked the child in his green eyes. "This is Stellos, the human brother of the human woman my brother is courting, and one of the reasons I continue to break Shadow Angel law. Stellos, this is Futaba, last child angel and joy of Atlantia."

"You're breaking Shadow Angel law?" he asked, concerned. The boy, not the baby.

"Indeed. It is unlawful to have any kind of contact or rapport with wingless ones. We are, after all, at war. And as you yourself said, your people sicken us with your callous acts of cruelty towards nature. My brother and I, however, have a different outlook on things. Me, I think though some of your kind are still bad, not all are. And my brother…" she trailed an arm to the clearing, where at the moment Seliene and Apollonius were kissing. "You can see for yourself."

"You know, I think one of the main reasons my sister loves your brother so much is the fact that they are enemies. She always loved debate, as much as she loves battle, and she always told me whenever our conversation ran down that vein that the only man she would marry would be the one to make her see both sides of a major issue. The two of them both believe that what they are doing in this war is right, that they are, in my sister's case, defending her homeland, or in your brother's case, cleansing and saving the earth by ridding it of its worst plague. As with every argument, there are two sides, and talking with your brother instead of just duking it out on the battlefield has helped my sister see both sides of this argument." The boy leaned back, contemplative. "Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it? I mean, here and now, there are two Shadow Angels who can admit that maybe not all humans are feculent pieces of waste, and there are two humans who can admit that maybe not all Shadow Angels are heartless, pompous, sadistic thickheads. It's not much, but it's hope." Sirene looked at him.

"I believe one of your more effective human leaders said that. He quite impressed us with his acts not only of kindness and mercy to his fellow humans, but to the animals and the world around him. It was through our close and careful observation of him that we first truly understood that humans _had _to eat. It wasn't just a cruel, life-wasting game; it was a matter of survival." Stellos blinked.

"Wait, you thought eating was some kind of sick game?"She nodded, halfway between sage and shamefaced.

"You see, we don't eat. The mouth is sacred, to be kept undefiled for the singing of the sacred songs of the tree of life. In return, the tree of life nourishes us, lends us her energy, that we may continue to praise her. Your people, on the other hand, must kill another living thing and feast on its dead corpse morning, noon, and nightfall. Can you blame us for finding it a bit repellent?" Stellos shook his head.

"From your point of view, I doubt I can." He shivered. Futaba giggled, clapping his hands. His Ma-ma was happy, and that made him happy, that this funny man made his Ma-ma happy. Stellos chuckled, tickling the boy under the chin when Sirene put the child in his arms, instead of freezing up like Apollonius did. Her brother was, funnily enough, kind of scared of babies. As she watched, fondly, the boy she now regularly held civil discourse with was sucked into what her cousin Otoha had mockingly dubbed the 'Babyverse', where anything and everything revolved around the baby and its actions and reactions. The clever words he often twisted around her to make a precise point were reduced to babyspeak, little one and two-syllable phrases with messed-up pronunciation as the baby worked his magic. Soon enough, the normally cool and collected boy was a babbling heap of baby-talking mush.

Stellos was snapped out of his babyhaze by a strange sound, one he'd only rarely heard his Shadow Angel friend produce. Sirene was laughing. He blinked at her for a minute, uncertain whether he should be amused or offended, before shrugging and laughing along. The baby laughed, too, and the laughter floated up into the golden afternoon sun.

Remembering the same thing happening not too long ago, Sirene stole a glance at Stellos out of the corner of her eye. Yup, he was still handsome. Yes, her insides kept doing acrobatics when he looked at her. Yes, it was still unbelievably easy to relax around him.

_…it's just a girlish crush? _Her conscience offered, uncertain.

At least she had that scant hope to cling to; that this was just an innocent child's crush, and not love. The same child's crush that her brother seemed to have on the human warrior Seliene…what was it about these Alisians? She shook her head. Let this crush run its course…soon enough she would be able to return to normal life.

Strangely, uncharacteristically, she found herself dreading that prospect; life in Atlantia seemed bleak and flat without the sporadic visits to look forward to. She never knew when the mood would strike her brother to go to Earth and meet his lover, and she could only go when he did; she didn't have the clearance for a solo trip to Earth unless it was a really important mission, so she always tagged along.

_I'd miss him…_the errant thought drifted across her consciousness, and she tensed lightly before relaxing herself by force; she didn't want to worry Stellos.

"So, what _is _life like in Atlantia?" his voice once again brought her to full awareness from her introspection.

"It's…well, tranquil is the word that comes to mind. Like a lot of other things, the concept of gravity kind of goes out the window, and along with it the somewhat limited ideas of 'up' and 'down'. Is down the way to the ground? Which way is the ground? Things make sense to me, but I've spent my entire life in Atlantia, living by its natural laws. It's difficult to explain to someone, especially a human, who's never been there. That loose grasp of the concept of gravity is what allows us to fly, largely. There's always someone singing-since my mother's death, it's usually my cousin Otoha or myself.

"The main entrance is a sort of gangplank leading out to the largest portal where the harvest beasts go through to Earth; then there's the Tree of Life chamber, which is where the idea of gravity really goes haywire, and then there's Mater Johannes' hall, where we gather for major events, and Lensi's workshop-he is our architect, the designer of the Cherubim Soldiers, believed to possess the fingers of God-, and a little above that is the warrior Moroha's loft. Moroha is one of the Ancients, Lensi and Johannes' only surviving agemate. Next-door to the chamber of the Tree of Life is the cloister of my clan, where Apollonius, Futaba, and I live. Nefertiri and Atenkhaton, Futaba's caretakers, live in an alcove-type building off of Johannes' hall.

"In the 'morning', I usually go for a flight; I think out of all the Shadow Angels, I spend the most time in the air. Then I go to visit Futaba; he can't fly on his own yet, so sometimes I take him along with me, to feel the wind. Usually, I then go back to the cloister and work on my projects, maybe read a little. Mid- to late-afternoon is singing time, when I take over for Otoha, who has the morning shift. Then in late evening, if there is something going on, we gather in Johannes' hall to make plans. I'm a fairly good strategist from watching, but my brother is a genius at that sort of thing. Late evening, if I don't need to sleep, I work a little more on my projects, and then I sing a little more until I drift off." Stellos cocked his head.

"'Projects'?" she blushed slightly.

"I…eh…I'm trying to write some of my own songs…set some poems of mine to music and all…?" her blush deepened and she studied the blue sky, looking for some hint of shadow that might indicate an Angel's presence.

"Wow…a singer, a warrior, a poet, and now a songwriter? I've picked up the Angel equivalent of my sister!" he gulped, looking mock-frightened and startling a snicker out of her.

"Eh, just kidding." He said as they sighed. "I do think of you as, y'know, someone other than my sister. An independent entity, your own person." He smiled.

"It drives me nuts, personally, when someone else assumes that I'm a poet and swordsman like my sister. Because we're technically nobility, even though the war has considerably shaved off our estate, we have to go to endless balls. It drives my sister crazy that she's stuffed into some amalgamation of lace and silk, forced to flutter a fan and giggle demurely while outside the walls innocent folk are in danger, but if anything, it's twice as bad for me. Even though I'm the second child, I'm technically my father's heir, so everyone is always pestering me about marriage contracts. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to a ball only to spend the entire evening with some airheaded floozy clinging to my arm and staring at me with cow eyes." He shuddered.

"Oh! You know what would be really priceless?" Sirene cocked her head. "If you went to one of the balls with me in some kind of fancy dress as the daughter of the earl of so-and-so, and you warded off all the cootie factories for me? At least I'll have some decent conversation to look forward to…and the looks on their faces!" he rolled so he was lying flat out on his back, writhing and bucking with laughter at the mental image.

Sirene's eyes widened as he recovered and looked at her calculatingly. "O-ho, no you don't!" she said. "There is no way-,"

_Later…_

"How in the name of the Tree did I let you talk me into this?" she murmured tersely to her companion as they swept into the ballroom.

"You just couldn't resist the kicked-puppy eyes." He grinned mischievously back at her and she sighed.

Sirene thought back. Even getting here was a bit of an adventure…

XXX

"Pleeeeeaaase, nii-sama?" she wheedled, giving him the kicked puppy eyes. He looked at her, exasperated, then spun around so he didn't have to look at her, then looked back over his shoulder. Sirene waited.

"Fine." He growled, mock gruff.

"Yatta!" she exclaimed, leaping on him and squeezing him before skipping off to the portal. "Nii-sama! It's not like we've got all day! Hurry up!" she called back to him.

"Hi." She had stepped through the portal and wound up in the clearing, the place that she'd so vividly pictured. Checking through the leaves, she confirmed that her brother was indeed in the clearing where he met Seliene. The two were already deep in a conversation; Sirene watched her brother's lips curl into a faint smile as he sparred with words and wit-this girl had him whipped. Stellos had addressed her, she smiled at him.

"Greetings."

"The deal is still on, correct?" her companion fixed her with a baleful eye, and she sighed.

"…yes…" the word grudgingly escaped her lips.

"Okay! I take it you can hide your appearance as a Shadow Angel?" she nodded warily, not liking where this was going-dresses hated her just as much as she hated them. Reluctant, she hid her wings, retracting them into her back until not a feather or even a lump of skin betrayed their existence. Even more reluctantly hidden were her true eyes; in her human form, they were a metallic silver not uncommon amongst some humans. Her knee-length hair changed texture from the normal semirigid barbules to long, sleek, silky strands, and she was outwardly a human.

"Awesome! All of the servants are on my side-I told them that I had a commoner friend, and I was sick of having some bimbo on my arm all night, but this friend of mine didn't have a dress, and I had to pass her off as nobility to get her admitted, so…" she smiled, grim, and nodded her head.

"Let's go."

"Oh, hello, Stellos!" chirped the kindly lady, looking up from the mannequin. She was a waning beauty, leaning towards the elder side of the scale, but no less bright and exuberant for it. Her eyes still had plenty of twinkle, and her hair, while touched lightly with grey, still shone a warm caramel-brown in the sunlight that entered through a window.

"So, this is the mystery friend?" the woman hopped up off her stool and paced around Sirene, eyeing her frankly. "Nice hip-to-knee length." She commented absently. "Delicate but durable ankles, long, thin fingers, _love _the hair…oh, where are my manners?" the dressmaker shook her head at her own absentmindedness, extending a hand. "My name's Lilisu, and I've been a dressmaker for the de Alisia family nearly my whole life-the same with my mother, and her mother, and her mother, going all the way back to the first Abelans who pledged their service to the first de Alisias. I'll also be your dressmaker for this particular occasion." She smiled cheerfully at Sirene, who smiled back.

"I'm Syleena Celesti." The pseudonym rolled neatly off her tongue; it was a simple corruption of her genuine name, Sirene Celaesto. "Pleased to meet you." Her eye was caught by the dummy; it had the barest beginnings of what she knew was going to become a beautiful dress. "Special project?" Lilisu smiled again. Her whole being was just so sunny; her face was creased lightly, all laugh-lines.

"You could say that. Stellos has been planning this since a couple of weeks ago; he was describing you to me in such detail, I could see a vivid image of you in my mind, and I had to pin some of my ideas down in fabric before they floated off." Sirene nodded.

"Same thing happens to me all the time; I love to sing, and sometimes little snatches of music just drift into my mind and demand to be sung." Lilisu turned to Stellos and made shooing motions.

"Go, shoo, go away…I've already made her the basic dress, but for tailoring and details, I'm going to have to model it directly onto her." Stellos blushed and beat feet for the door. Once he was out, Sirene, obedient to Lilisu's insistence, pulled off the simple peasant garments and folded them neatly, setting them on a bench before Lilisu pulled the 'basic dress' off the dummy and onto Sirene.

It was a simple enough thing, a pure black gown, short-sleeved and gathered at the waist before blooming out to lightly touch the floor. Thanks to discreet ribs of double-stitching, the skirt was semirigid, enough to not get tangled or caught on furniture and suchlike, but still pliant enough to gather up in one hand and run in. As she watched in bemusement, Lilisu yanked open one of the wardrobes with her foot and pulled out a mannequin modeling a pretty thing, a piece of black-and-silver-embroidered, dark purple cloth. It was, widthwise, the length of both her forearms consecutively and long enough lengthwise to loop across the torso, over one shoulder, and wrap around the waist several times, hanging like a skirt.

"So." Lilisu broke the comfortable silence as she draped the cloth around the girl, wrapping, knotting, and pinning it to her satisfaction, marking places to take stitches with red pins. "You seem to have caught our young lord heir's eye." Sirene blushed, but her tone was admirably calm.

"If I have, I am not aware of it…one would think that catching an eye would be a bit of a sticky, macabre experience…" the two shared a laugh over that display of morbid wit. "Really, though, he's more like a best friend than…anything else…he's the only person I can really talk to, you know?"

Now, Lilisu approached Sirene with a wood and leather case holding various implements for the dressing of hair; she whipped out an elaborate headdress of silver with purple and black gemstones in it. Pinning half of Sirene's hair up in a bun and carefully inserting the halo-like headpiece, she let the rest of it out of her customary braid. The hair cascaded down her back in soft waves of midnight, reaching down past her knees, almost to mid-calf, the combined weight of hair and headdress tilting her head back to a regal angle. The jeweled strings attached to the 'halo' rested gently in two loops, one over each temple, the ends of the strings joining back up to the 'halo' before another string-loop, dead center, dangled a large amethyst pendant dead center on her forehead, accenting her silver eyes.

"Well, good friends is good, too. Our young lord hasn't many people his own age to associate with, male or female. I worry about him, sometimes, spending all his time at the family compound, or training; the war takes up much of his mind, now that his sister is old enough to fight and does so with such vigor. She's already a hero, to us and to the other people, noble and commoner alike, a symbol of a woman's strength." Sirene smiled; it was nice to hear about this woman who'd caught her brother's interest with such glowing praise from a human's lips.

Much later, the two were strolling through the doors of the hall.

"You just couldn't resist the kicked-puppy eyes." Stellos teased her. "Now come on, we've got to dance. Y'know, I've got no idea if you _can _dance…"

"Wanna bet?" Sirene grinned slyly, delicately looping the trail of fabric over her arm to be able to dance better. The two of them danced together, perfectly keeping up with the music, laughing, joking, teasing each other. Just like their regular conversations in the trees…only this time, with an audience. People paused by the dance floor just to take a look at this mysterious beauty who was engaging the heir in such successful pleasantries. No other woman of her beauty had ever been able to crack through Stellos' stoic shell.

There was a near scrape with her brother, but they managed to pull it off, and Sirene, after an evening of being Syleena, safely returned to Atlantia.

_That was fun…_


	3. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Ack!

It has recently come to my attention that I've spent almost a month, maybe more, without updating any of my stories, or even letting you guys know what on Earth is going on with me.

Long story. Main points:

-My brother tried to use my flash drive to transfer files and somehow managed to fry the little mechanical brains out of the thing. –Poof- go all my stories. New chapters, new stories I planned to put up, brainstorms, everything.

-Cousins descended upon us for almost a week, with only a week and a half's notice. Singwing is now all cousined out, thank you very much. Must…reboot…brain…

-It has come to my attention since I lost my files that I have run out of stamina on some of them, and on others I have no idea where to go. As a result, I am putting some up for adoption, in the hope that they will find loving, kindly authors who will have mercy on a penniless soul…

THE STORIES BEING PUT UP FOR ADOPTION:

-In the Name of Love

-Black as Ebony

THE STORIES I WILL KEEP IN THE HOPES THAT I CAN GET RESTARTED:

-Sister of the Sun

STORIES THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN COMPLETED WHICH I SHAN'T MESS WITH:

-Furies of Panem

COMING SOON:

-Daughter of Shadows (Aquarion fic: Apollo is a girl)

Thank you all so much for your patience. Yet again, my many apologies. Please PM if you'd like to adopt.

-singwing


End file.
